I strongly recommend not using the NetBeans visual designer until you attain a proficiency in Swing coding that qualifies you to read and understand the gobbledygook it generates.
Turn to the Swing tutorials to learn the correct way of
Performing Custom Painting. What are "graphics primitives" in your terminology?
Should I go back to typing text files and compiling them myself?
It doesn't take long to learn (and appreciate) the NetBeans code editor features. You'll immediately find the code completion and error highlighting useful, and before long you'll be adding your own code templates etc. to increase your productivity.
And since this is GUI related, I'll move it to the appropriate forum.